Prompt 1 - Process

I saw a post on FaceBook today from the magazine Dance Current. They are looking for artists to feature on their covers, and their theme is process. They asked a few questions, and the first stopped me in my tracks - it was “What does process mean to you?”

Let this be our first prompt!!! What does process mean to you?

I’ve included a short article below from a teacher I studied with a lot during the pandemic years, Alexandra Beller. It’s called Undefining Our Process and is wonderful to help you shake up your current ways of making and thinking about your process and your practice.

You can comment below with questions or musings, or feel free to email me directly!

Happy thinking,

Audra

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Undefining Our Process by Alexandra Beller

Make a list of any defining features or consistent choices you make in your artistic process. Put everything, even things that seem like givens (“I rehearse in a studio”) on a list, and write down both details and structural aspects that feel like they are often part of your process. The list might include things like:

How long you think about the work before taking action on it

How collaborations evolve

How you schedule

How you plan (before the first, before each, during the process)

How you digest and synthesize information along the way (journaling, video tape, discussion, daydreaming?)

How you communicate with your collaborators in the room and elsewhere

How you pitch the work

How you share it along the way

How long you work on each aspect of (planning, creating, editing, producing, presenting, etc)

How you respond emotionally to various points in the process (“I start off excited/nervous/apathetic” “I host a pint where I feel like this is the worst thing I’ve ever made…”)

For each thing on your list, re-write it as a rule: “You must plan for an hour before every rehearsal.” If there are multiple parts to a response, write multiple rules.

Tackle one rule at a time, leaving space beneath it. In the space beneath it, write down all the possible ways you might reject that rule. Attempt to let go of all givens beyond the 24 hour day and gravity, meaning don’t anticipate “yeah, but I’d never want to work that way…” or “I don’t have enough money for that…”

Your list might look something like:

“You must rehearse twice a week for three hours”

Do short intensives of 1-3 weeks where you rehearse for 6 hours a day.

Do one 8 hour rehearsal per week.

Spend ten minutes a day making something. Every single day for a year.

Rehearse remotely, via skype or by sending videos to one another on your own time, unscheduled.

Try to make something in 24 hours, staying up or sleeping as you choose, but having a deadline of 24 hours to create something and then show it in the 24th hour.

Once you’ve finished rejecting every “rule” of your process, sit with the list of rejections in a visceral, not analytical or critical way. WIthout thinking about scheduling or logistics or money, just get a gut response to the possibilities. “That one is exciting!” “That sounds like my nightmare.” Put these ideas on a separate list and now consider how any of them might operate functionally for you and how useful they might be. If one of them feels art-altering to you but requires funding, are there any creative solutions to fund raising you can think of (barter, donated space, shared resources, untapped potential supporters?) If one of them requires a shift in logistics is there a way to re-organize to create it (babysitting trade, personal assistant, a shift in delegating responsibilities at home?). Attempt not to take the limitations as givens (“My partner works night so I can never rehearse nights, when I feel most creative and my collaborators are most available”), but truly ask how it might be possible, even if you ultimately choose not to do it (“Bring the kids to the studio” “Have a weekly sleepover”).